CIA TRIED TO USE MOB'S GIANCANA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75B00380R000300050001-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 31, 2005
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: December 31, 1973
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2005/06/06: CIIFB 80R000300050 1- a~A--
A a ?1
THE' CENTRAL Intelligence Agency
solicited - gangster Salvatore [Morro]
Giancana's help in developing a spy
network in Fidel Castro's Communist
Cuba about a year before the abortive
Bay of Pigs invasion.
That may shock some readers who
don't think official government agen-
cies should consort with Mafia chief-
tains. But at the time of the 1960 ap-
proach to Giant^.na, ' the CIA scheme
made sense.
Giancana was then the poiverful op-
erating tread of the Chi-ago crime syn-
dicate with tentacles : reaching south-
ward into the. gambling casinos of
Caribbean, including Cuba.
panding his Chicago-based lie detector
and piv_te detective agency to their
country. At the time, his agency was
located in the backroom of a loan
shark-operated finance company bank-
rolled by the late mobster Fiore [Fifil
Buccieri. -
The Mexicans didn't know that. But
they did discover Cain had violated
provisions of his government permit to
carry out his survey. Instead, he had
actually engaged in business. And that
got him deported in June, 1962, a date
in conflict with his claims of having
been ousted in 1961 after training Cu-
bari exiles in Mexico for the CIA inva
sion.
Cain is believed to have been Gianca-
na's contribution to the CIA attempt to
overthrow Castro. Cain had already
made a survey of gambling casino pos-
sibilities for Giancana in Lima, Peru,
and the Caribbean during 1960.
He had also joined two other Gianca-
na aides-Carmen l3astone and Leslie
[Killer Kane] Kruse? in checking out
similar efforts in the Bahamas and the
Dominican Republic.
And he bad conferred with Gianca-
na's close friend and business associate
from Havana casino days, Meyer Lan-
sky, the New Yor and Miami mobster
States. who supervised the SiCJ million a year
However, it is not known for certain Mafic-financed casinos under Dictator
In what manner Giancana responded to l3;Lti to from the Riviera hotel there.
the CIA invitation to join in its intelli-
gence efforts that eventually.laidl the
sored Bay of Pigs invasion in April,. SINCE LANSI:Y was an old pal of
1901. Giancana and Chicago mob leaders An-
Giancana is said to have placed Cain thony [Big Tuna] Accardo and the late
in contact with Cuban sources in Ha- Paul [The Waiter] Ricca, his contacts
vana and elsewhere ? in the Caribbean, in Havana were also undoubtedly inval-
coatacts Giancana had personally made uable? to Cain in carrying out Gianca-
dur:ng his extensive travels in the area. na's mission for the CIA.
Further, surveillances of Cain's activ- Cain's assignment was quite similar
ities in that period show he visited n to that he performed for Giancana in
CIA office in Chicago in 1930 with infor- the .i~MIiddie East, Spain, Germany, and
mation on Cuban exile groups in Chica- Italy after his release from federal
go. Then later, in April, 1962, Cain re- prison in 1971.
ported to CIA agents in 'Mexico City on No doubt about it. Cain was a man of
Cuban Communist clandestine opera- many faces. His CIA caper
tions in ,Mexico. cana was one of them.
Cain had gone south of the border in
the
1931, informing Mexican authorities he
intended to survey. possibilities of ex-
GIANCANA HAD maintained casino.
.interests along with other -American
gangsters in Havana before the Jan. 1,
1959, fall of the Fulgenclo Batista re-
gime. He was a pal of Meyer Lansky,
the king of Cuban gambling until Cas-
tro chased him from the island.
And Giancana presumably would still
have ways of reaching out thru the
underworld to his many contacts re-'
maining in the Cuban capital from his
gambling days, including former payrol-
lers of his casino interests, business
associates, and other Cubans with
whom he had dealt.
T.h us, the international superspy
agency had no moral compunction
about contacting Giancana directly aft-
er preliminary negotiations thru inter-
mediaries, one of whom may have been
Richard Cain, the former Chicago Iavr-
man who became an underworld double
agent before his murder Dec. 20.
Responsible authorities here and in'
Washington confirm intelligence reports
that the contact with Giancana was
made.
And it is known Cain did have repeat-
ed traffic with the CIA in Chicago and
Mexico City, reportedly informing on
Castro Communist spies who had infil-
trated Cuban exile groups in the United
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iiL ,, ! 3171
i . Imo!i,~ -,., /Z:~i .iidT.es
RICHARD CAIN had so many proj-
ects underway at the time of his mur-
der last week it is a won !er there was
time enough left for two underworld
assassins to gun him down:
0 He was writing an expose on the
hidden alliance between Chicago police,
politicians, and crime syndicate gang-
sters, naming names and detailing
facts based on his own Experiences as
an undercover Mafia agent while a po-
lice officer himself.
A He was seeking to complete financing for a $2.4-million motion-pic-
ture extravaganza on the Bay of.,Ffigs
invasion of Cuba; using a script he, had
written himself and including some
personal experiences as a CIA payrol-
?ler training Cuban refugees for the
abortive 'attack. LA
0 He was trying to line up a wealthy
investor with $100,000 to launch a gam-
bling casino somewhere in the 1llediter-
ranean.
m And he was touring Rush Street
and other North Side areas of the city,
demanding that local mob enterprises
now pay him the tribute due gangsters
Joey [Caesar] DiVarco and Big Joe
Arnold while they remained in jail on
income tax-evasion charges.
Cain's multitudinous activities came
to light yesterday thru a series of pri-
vate letters written to Chicago friends
earlier this year by Cain from the
apartment he maintained under the ali-
ases Richard Scott and Riccardo Scal-
zitti at Calzada Tacubaya, 'Mexico City.
This columnist was .permitted to view
them with the promise of eternal ano-
nymity for the recipients. They make
fascinating reading. And enough of the
contents have bee!i Corroborated by
other sources to rive the material more
than usual credence.
FOR EXAMPLE, Washington sources
con f i r m off-the-record, that Cain's
claims of having been ousted from
Mexico in 1931 after having trained
anti-Communist refugees for an attack
on Fidel Castro's island - bastion are
true.
Further, other sources in the capital
verify Cain was, hired by the CIA be-
cause his American crime syndicate
connections afforded him certain con-
tacts in Havana as a result of the mob-?
operated gambling casinos that flour- THEN, IN a March 15 letter, Cain
ished in Cuba under former dictator reported he could smooth the way for a
Fulgencio ]i dat. ed last 22 prospective investor in a '1leditcrrane-
In a letter dat Feb. -, Cain a, tourist hotel gambling casino by in-
reported a United States agency at troducing him to the proper officials
odds with the CIA hurl been responsible' needed for a government license. He
for his 1901 ouster from Mexico by fab-. did not name the country, altho while
ricating for local authorities a
story in Chicago he boasted of plans for a
in
cago. The following year Cain, a for-
mer Chicago police vice detective, was
appointed chief investigator of the Cook
County sheriff's office.
In his letter, Cain suggested one of
his' CIA chores had included wiretap-
ping' the Czechoslovakian embassy in
Mexico City and that rivalry between
the agencies had brought that to an
abrupt halt.
Last April 2, Cain discussed his pro-
pos&d novel and his need for a pub-
lisher. -
" It .have set aside all planned activi-
ties [including a trip to Europe ...] in
order taspend the next three months in
seclusion writing a novel about the Chi-
c a g o Police Department, politics,
crime, etc. etc. I've been planning t
do so for ages, but have been lazy .. .
People should know about [a name ob-
literated] and how search warrants are
obtained and ward committeemen- and
whores, not how gallant our guardians
are!"
According to two pf Cain's letters, his
movie script is in the possession of a
friend in Chicago. People who have
read it verify its existence.
In a Feb-. 7 letter, Cain claimed to
have already obtained a $1 million
commitment for the film from Europe-
an sources. A major Hollywood studio
had offered to make up the difference
in exchange for distribution rights. But
Cain said Ile had refused the offer be-
cause the studio wanted to exercise
"editorial license."
Exterior shots would be filmed in
Mexico witit the cooperation of the
?Mexican government thru the loan of
an infantry-regiment to portray comba-
tants at the Bay of fits, he wrote.
And, he claimed further, David Lean,
the distinguished l3ritish movie director
t?;ho won an Academy Aw,nrd for "The
Bridge on the River K vai," was inter=
.cstcd in the film.
gambling ship cruising off the island of
Malta.
Finally, sources report Cain was al-
leging along Rush Street just a few
days before his murder that he had
been named to substitute for DiVarco
and Arnold 'during their absence in-
prison and claimed to have their per-
sonal approval.-
None of these schemes, however,
came to pass. Cain didn't have enough
time to do them all for he had an
appointment he didn't know about-
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Approved For Release 2005/06/06 : CIA-RDP75B0038OR000300050001-7